Relatives, friends of 2 Joliet homicide victims ask for justice

4 people charged in strangulation

Andras Shaw, right, and Quiona Woods, show support for slain friends Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins, both 22, on Monday at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune)

Friends and relatives of the victims of last week's double homicide in Joliet gathered outside the Will County Courthouse Monday afternoon, asking that the slaying suspects be brought to justice.

Eric Glover, 22, and Terrance Rankins, 22, were found strangled Thursday in a home in the 1100 block of North Hickory Street. Police said robbery appeared to be the motive.

The four defendants — Adam Landerman, 19, Alisa Massaro, 18, Bethany McKee, 18, and Joshua Miner, 24 — each face first-degree murder charges and remain in custody on $10 million bond. Landerman is the son of a Joliet police officer.

When the suspects were arrested Thursday afternoon, three of them were partying inside the home, officials have said.

Friends of the victims said Rankins and Glover were called to the home by the women charged in their deaths. Casey Smith said Rankins called Wednesday night and joked that the women were telling him and Glover that they had been "kidnapped."

"He said they told him, 'You ain't going home tonight,'" Smith recalled, adding that Rankins thought it was a joke. "They said, 'You're kidnapped and you ain't going home.'"

Rankins' mother, Jammille Kent, said her son was best friends with Glover. When she last spoke to her son the night before police discovered his body, he told her he was going out. She tried texting him at 11:15 p.m. and then called his phone several times when he did not respond. Normally, he would answer the phone or return calls right away, she said.

"He knew them," she said of the defendants. "But they weren't friends. I knew his friends, and those weren't his friends."

When her son did not return home Thursday, she contacted her cellphone provider to see if they could trace the location of his phone. They were unable to locate the phone but told her the last number to be called or to call her son's phone belonged to McKee, she said. That call came in at 8:49 p.m. Wednesday, she said.

Glover graduated from Joliet Central High School in 2008. He played minor league football in the area and coached youth football with his stepdad, Bobby Jones.

On Wednesday, Glover watched a movie with his fiancee and his mother and stepdad and left about 6 p.m., Jones said. "Last thing we said (to him) was we love you, be careful," Jones said.

Rankins grew up in Joliet and was a 2010 graduate of Joliet West High School. His mother said he had hoped to go to college and wanted to be a social worker. He enjoyed making music, dancing and playing sports, she said.